Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers

Customer Reviews:

Analysis of Pop Culture with Mostly Accessible Essays.......2006-02-19

Signs of Life focuses on the way we are shaped by the media and advertising with nine chapters that cover "Consuming Passions," "The Signs of Advertising," "Video Dreams," "The Culture of American Film," "Culture and Contradiction in the U.S.A.," "Gender Codes," "Constructing Race," "Popular Spaces," and "American Icons." Many of the essayists, like David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, Thomas Frank, Eric Schlosser, Franine Prose, Gregg Easterbrook, Malcolm Gladwell, and Michael Eric Dyson are best-selling authors whose essays or book excerpts are published in popular magazines. Signs of Life is well served by these writers who, unlike some of the lesser known writers, don't indulge in heavy didactic, academic prose. Some might not like the book for giving too much space to overly didactic writers. For example, there is Fred Davis' essay about the cultural signs and contradictions of blue jeans, which is so steeped in academic speak and is so absorbed by its tiny topic that it seems a pardoy of scholarly writing. Read for example: "Paralleling the de-democratization of the jean, by the 1970s strong currents toward is eroticization were also evident." Or "Of all of the modifications wrought upon it, the phenomenon of designer jeans speaks most directly to the garment's encoding of status ambivalences. The very act of affixing a well-known designer's label . . . to the back side of a pair of jeans has to be interpreted . . . along Veblenian lines, as an instance of conspicuous consumption; in effect, a muting of the underlying rough-hewn proletarian connotation of the garment throug the introduction of a prominent status marker." This is tough going, especially freshmen college students who are not familiar with this type of heavy-handed writing. This essay selection should be further criticized because I don't think students should be encouraged to believe that Fred Davis' heavy-handed writing style represents a worthy model.

In spite of some of the book's excesses, teachers and students alike should appreciate Signs of Life for three reasons: 1) Integrating the aforementioned popular authors into the chapters about popular culture, 2) Providing excellent essay assignments at the end of each essay under the heading "Reading the Signs." With a half dozen strong essay options per essay, the students have over 50 assignment options for chapter. 3) The introduction has three excellent model essays that show the students how to write A-level expositions. The models are based on "The Personal Experience Essay," "Critical Reading of a Film," and "The Open-Ended Analytic Assignment." Each model shows how to integrate outside quotes, paraphrases, and summary into the writer's own voice and how to document outside sources in the text and at the end of the manuscript with an MLA style "Works Cited" page.

It appears that Signs of Life Fifth Edition is moving away from the academic lucubrations of scholarly authors and embracing more accessible writers, like those previously mentioned. This is a positive evolution for the fifth edition and hopefully points to less overly-done academic writing in future editions.

What the media is up to...........2005-09-22

There is a statement that is familiar amongst our society, especially those of us that are more liberal, and that is "to not always trust what the media offers as valid or true." This textbook is an attempt to characterize the ways that media manipulate or tangle the truth, and even goes as far as offering an explanation as to why they do it. Now this is where objectivity within a learning text can be lost because to offer opinion about why the media does such things is treacherously difficult to do without biasing a left or right view. Yet the book does offer many illuminating details about the workings of this incredibly powerful economic and political tool, and more importantly, it offers the reader tools for combating or deciphering the clouded messages it gives.

I believe that this is a book that must be read by every human being (not to mention our pets who more and more become economic targets) so as to arm himself or herself against the incessant onslaught of "buy me! Buy me!" and "I can make you better because God knows you weren't made right!" However, the book loses power in being a textbook because some fluidity is lost, and it can be at times rather bland.

Nonetheless, it is a great tool to have and a tool that has now more recently become important to the human in his newest, superficial society.

Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing (6th Edition)

Average customer rating:

A great anthology
Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing (6th Edition)

Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing (6th Edition)
Diana George , and John Trimbur
Manufacturer: Longman
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321391691

Book Description

Acclaimed for its compelling readings and provocative images, Reading Culture provides students with outstanding instruction on how to read and write critically about the culture that surrounds them.

Benefits by examining how culture organizes social experiences andshapes our identities.

Reading the News, Storytelling, Topics on work, Public Space readings. General Interest, Improving Writing

Customer Reviews:

A great anthology .......2007-04-30

I have taught composition using this anthology for four semesters and I love it. It is relevant, progressive, and great to look at. Its article are modern and it approaches issues such as the use of public space or the creation of the institution of school from various points of view, including race and class. It is a bit difficult for freshman composition, but definitely offers richness if you are willing to take the class time to very carefully pick apart the essays. The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is the price. It is way too expensive, especially for community college students. I hope Pearson will consider that in future editions.

Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing (6th Edition) .......2007-02-07

great product, fast shipping.

Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide

Average customer rating:

Wonderful book

Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide
W. Barnett Pearce , and Stephen W. Littlejohn
Manufacturer: Sage Publications, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0761900535
Release Date: 1997-03-20

Book Description

Moral Conflict, the subject of this book is passionate and difficult to resolve. Responses that are normally effective such as explaining, persuading, and compromising can make matters worse and drive people further apart in such conflicts. Moral conflicts occur when incommensurate social realities come to clash. Disputes about abortion, religion in politics and education, legal rights for homosexuals, and environmental politics are issues in which well-intentioned parties have created polarized and diverse patterns of communication. The most virtuous actions of each side not only fail, but widen the schism. Such conflicts require us to find forms of communication that go beyond our normal ways of dealing with disagreement. In an original synthesis of communication theory and their own research, W. Barnett Pearce and Stephen W. Littlejohn describe a dialectical tension between the expression and suppression of conflict that can be transcended in ways that lead to personal growth and productive patterns of social action. In Moral Conflict several projects are described as practical examples of these new ways of working through difficult struggles.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book.......1999-03-01

I am reading this book, Moral Conflict, and I recommend it very highly. Intercultural conflict in today's rapidly shrinking world is almost inevitable. The authors bring many practical models which help increase one's options in resolving conflict situations. I VERY highly recommend the book.

Rhetorical Visions: Reading and Writing in a Visual Culture

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Rhetorical Visions: Reading and Writing in a Visual Culture
Wendy S. Hesford , and Brenda Brueggemann
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0131773453

Across Cultures: A Reader for Writers (6th Edition)

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Across Cultures: A Reader for Writers (6th Edition)
Sheena Gillespie , and Robert Singleton
Manufacturer: Longman
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ASIN: 0321213181

Book Description

Short Retail Description: Designed to offer an appealing anthology where there is an increased interest in connections between and among cultures, Across Cultures, strives to promote understanding of diverse cultures among students. Designed to offer an appealing anthology where there is an increased interest in connections between and among cultures, Across Cultures, strives to promote understanding of diverse cultures among students. Each unit contains selections on American culture by American writers, selections by writers from diverse ethnic groups within the United States, and selections by writers writing from or about cultures elsewhere, thus placing American culture and its diversity into a context of world culture.

Average customer rating:

I got a preview copy.
Diverse and Thought-Provoking Anthology

One World, Many Cultures (6th Edition)
Stuart Hirschberg , and Terry Hirschberg
Manufacturer: Longman
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ASIN: 0321355644

Book Description

This truly global multicultural reader features almost 60 contemporary selections by internationally acclaimed authors from 22 countries. These compelling readings explore cultural differences in relation to race, class, gender, and nationality, challenging readers to compare their experiences with those of others in radically different cultural circumstances.

Introduces readers to the culture and people of other countries through the eyes of someone from that culture.

Family life, adolescent relationships, gender roles, work and the environment, race and class conflicts, social and political issues, “the other,” and customs, rituals, and values — from the perspectives of authors from 22 countries.

General interest in global issues / other cultures.

Customer Reviews:

I got a preview copy........2005-09-20

I did not know I was ordering a preview copy, which are not supposed to be resold.

Diverse and Thought-Provoking Anthology.......2000-05-04

This grab-bag of writings from around the world includes Kate Wilhelm's short story "The Village," which dramatizes the Vietnam War in an unusual way; Octavio Paz's analysis of "The Day of the Dead" in Mexico; and Samir Al-Khalil's account of how Saddam Hussein uses fear to control the people of Iraq. Truly multicultural, this collection has a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction from around the world. Themes include The Family in Different Cultures, Turning Points, How Culture Shapes Gender Roles, How Work Creates Identity, Class Conflicts, The State and the Individual, Strangers in a Strange Land, The Role Customs Play in Different Cultures, and The Impact of War. Authors include George Orwell, Joan Didion, Amy Tan, Danny Santiago, and Jamaica Kincaid. Great for a high school or college reading or writing class.

Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing, Fifth Edition

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Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing, Fifth Edition
Diana George , and John Trimbur
Manufacturer: Longman
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The World is a Text: The Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and Its Contexts (2nd Edition)

Average customer rating:

Approach and Selections Make this a Winner
Excellent!!!

The World is a Text: The Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and Its Contexts (2nd Edition)
Jonathan Silverman , and Dean Rader
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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ASIN: 0131931989

Book Description

The book teaches readers the usefulness of learning to actively "read" their surroundings. The new edition features a greatly expanded section on writing, editing, and making arguments. This cultural studies reader directly engages the process of writing about the "texts" one sees in everyday life. Its comprehensive and inclusive approach focuses on the relationship between reading traditional works–such as short stories, and poems–and other less-traditional ones–such as movies, the Internet, race, ethnicity, and television. For anyone who enjoys provocative and engaging material, and is interested in developing an appreciation for diverse cultural literary works.

Customer Reviews:

Approach and Selections Make this a Winner.......2003-05-21

Using poetry, fiction, photos, and essays, the book offers a colorful tour of the subtle and not-so-subtle influences Americans deal with every day, and it guides the reader through the process of 'reading' these 'texts' that make up our world. The texts include not just the written variety but also television, movies, popular music, and public space.
The readings include essays on 'Seinfeld,' 'The Simpsons,' and the Rosie O'Donnell show, in addition to choice works by Neruda, Langston Hughes, Chris Haven, Kate Chopin, and many others. I haven't found a dry one in bunch, honestly, though at first glance I was afraid the section on public space would be a snooze. Not so! It's actually pretty thought-provoking.
The book's pedagogical emphasis is on getting readers to find and analyze the subtexts that run through cultural influences of all kinds and to explore their reactions through writing. I think this aspect of the book is very well done and would be effective in getting students to think critically about the world.

The strange and beautiful (not to mention utterly surprising) thing about this work is that it makes for consistently fascinating reading despite its status as a composition/cultural studies text. I've been leafing through the selections for pleasure reading, and from that perspective, it's an uncommonly tasty collection.

As a reader for a class, I think this book would be tremendously effective, and were I to teach a composition or cultural studies class, it would be my first choice.

Excellent!!!.......2003-03-12

This is an excellent book!!! This book provides an intelligent, engaging and enjoyable perspective of reading, writing and understanding literature. What makes this book captivating is the personal tone of the book, it really has a unique approach to teaching literature and it's very lively copy. Captivating literature choices!!! I really enjoy this book, it not only teaches about literature, it also touches on the life around us and how we interact with that world. This book comes in handy for any stage of your writing and it is an enjoyable read. Intelligent writers, whose strongest asset is their own fresh thoughts they share with the reader!!! Highly recommend this book!!

Critical Inquiries: Readings on Culture and Community

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Critical Inquiries: Readings on Culture and Community
Jacqueline Jones Royster
Manufacturer: Longman
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Binding: Paperback

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Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict

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Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict
Susan Wyle
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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ASIN: 0130293059

Book Description

This composition reader, roughly organized chronologically, offers contributions on a myriad of racial and cultural struggles in past and present America. Its combination of primary, secondary, and literary sources encourages readers to think critically about the issues which have shaped the world around them, which take root in the early history of the United States, and which continue to be important in society today. The book also offers a glimpse into the power of language—written and spoken—in shaping ideas, attitudes, and politics when conflicts arise. A wide range of readings (by both well- and lesser-known authors), traces the evolution of conflicts in American history from the 17th century on, and compares and contrasts issues involving race, class, and gender over those centuries. An engaging variety of topics includes transcripts from the Salem witch trials, speeches and writings by a number of native Americans, journals from women who dressed as men in the Civil War so they could fight, and presidential speeches dating back to the 18th century. For anyone who wants to listen to the historical voices that have come together to make America the complex and multicultural place that it is today.

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